Breathing Fire (Drakonian Chronicles Book 1)

by B. D. Snowden

  Ryuu laid his hand over Ladon’s fist. “Okay.”

  Ladon let Ryuu fall back into his seat and turned on Tugarin. Tugarin just raised his hands. “You’re the hunter. I concede to your expertise.”

  “Finally,” Ladon threw his hands up and fell back into his chair. He pulled up a schematic of the facility and started laying out his defense strategy.

  He sent Ryuu and Tugarin off to accomplish a series of tasks. Booby traps in the surrounding area as well as down the main corridor. Alexis was moved to a more secure location. The odds were not in their favor, but if they could funnel their attackers into the tight confines of the corridor then they had a chance of picking them off a few at a time and wearing them down. This was his Thermopylae. He would save Alexis even if he died in the process.

  He had to figure out a way to put their ship out of commission. Ladon doubted that military strategy had changed all that much. Weapons and technology may change through the years, but at its core battle was about out maneuvering your opponent.

  If Ladon had been assigned the mission he would only send out a portion of his men until he assessed the capabilities of the enemy. Especially if he had been under the impression that the enemy was just a woman and maybe a couple of other opponents. But Ladon wasn’t just any opponent. He was one of the greatest battle generals of Drakonian history, even if Fafnir erased his name from their traditions, he could not erase the experience that shaped Ladon.

  Ladon had been so successful against overwhelming odds in the past because he didn’t rely on brute strength. He was an intelligent strategist, willing to use any and all knowledge at his disposal.

  That was one of the reasons he was studying Luo Fuxi’s theories. He was the father of Drakonian cloaking technology. Fuxi’s work was new when Ladon was still an imperial soldier; but he was the only one who had been able to create a working cloaking mechanism. So, it stood to reason that everything since built on that foundation.

  Unfortunately, the technobabble in the papers were giving Ladon a headache. He was about to put the thing away to take a break when he skimmed over a section. There…Ladon reread the section. Finally, he might have found a weakness.

  *****

  Ladon and Tugarin were modifying one of the planetary defense weapons that had been outfitted at each Drakonian facility. It wouldn’t do them much good against a fleet, but as far as they knew they were only dealing with a single ship. All Drakonian ships were controlled via nano integration by the crew. There is little reason to think that had changed.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” Ladon continued entering the information Tugarin told him to input. It was a long and arduous process. “The virus you used on Alexis was biological in nature.”

  “All DNA is simply a code that tells proteins how to form which then connect to form something else and the process goes on until the organism is complete. Though one could argue that organisms connect through the life cycle and processes of life and death to form an entire planet, which connects to other planets to for the solar system. Which connects…”

  “Okay, I get it. Hold the lecture until after the battle.” Ladon chuckled. “Did you change the programming?”

  “As requested this virus will sever the crew’s connection to the ship; but aren’t Drakonian ships protected against outside information being downloaded?”

  “Normally but per Fuxi’s research any ship using the cloaking technology is vulnerable when they drop the cloak to allow shuttles to exit.”

  “I think I remember that paper. He cloaked ships using what amounted to a vast cloud of nano machines whose job was to change sensor data surrounding the ship.”

  Ladon entered another line of code, “Exactly. And if they were working they couldn’t be hacked; but they have to be shut down when a shuttle is launched from the main ship, otherwise the cloaking nanos can accidently cause malfunctions in the shuttle’s systems.”

  “And while they are shut down they can be reprogrammed.” Tugarin nodded. “It is a sound plan, but it will only work if the virus is ready for download when they get here.”

  Almost as soon as Tugarin made that last statement the orbital alarms started going off.

  “You just had to jinx us,” Ladon shouted over the alarm as he bolted from the console. “Finish the code. Be ready to launch it when they send the second wave of soldiers.”

  “Are you so sure they will send a second wave?”

  “They will have to if the first wave is dead.”

  40

  Ladon stopped by Alexis’s room on the way to his battle station. She was still sleeping peacefully despite the alarm. Tugarin had given her a sedative to ensure that her body got the rest it needed. Ladon caressed her cheek and gave her a gentle kiss. He set a series of traps near her door as a last line of defense. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, but he wasn’t taking chances.

  He passed by Ryuu who was stationed in the main corridor. The plan was Ladon would push the soldiers to the tight confines of the corridor where Ryuu would pick them off. Once Tugarin disabled the ship, he would join Ryuu in defending the corridor while Ladon picked off stragglers from the rear. It was a solid plan, but it counted on being able to physically outlast the enemy. Ladon prayed that the other two men cared enough for Alexis to last.

  Ladon active his nanos and his battle suit retracted. He opened the facility door and walked out into the burning cold naked. When he cleared the tunnel of ice, he transformed into his dragon and waited.

  “Virus ready for upload.” Tugarin’s voice buzzed over the communication network.

  In his dragon form Ladon had to use his nanos to communicate and sent instructions to monitor the orbit, especially near the last know location of the ship. As soon as another shuttle launched Tugarin was to send the virus.

  Ladon’s dragon vision caught a streak of light on the horizon. The human population would assume that a meteor had fallen, but Ladon knew that was the shuttle entering the atmosphere. They appeared to be landing at the human settlement where they had procured the sled dogs. Ladon prayed that the Drakonian soldiers left the humans alone, but he knew that was doubtful of men under Fafnir’s command.

  It took days to reach the research facility by dog sled; but Ladon and his group had been trying to stay hidden from the human authorities. The Drakonians sent after them wouldn’t even consider staying hidden. In the shuttle, they could be at the facility in under an hour. In dragon form it would only be a matter of hours.

  Ladon took the time waiting for the attack to build a makeshift fortress. He used his fire to melt the surrounding glacier ice. He used the wind from his wings to create tall walls of water and then used his nanos to manipulate the surrounding temperature of the water freezing the walls into a thick, sparkling dome of ice. Ladon may have an affinity for heat, but cold was just a lack of heat. Most people, even Drakonians, didn’t consider that a nanos affinity for one aspect also allowed the person to manipulate that aspects opposite. It was essentially the same elements just different ends of the spectrum.

  Ladon had just finished the domed fortress when he saw the glint of the metallic shuttle on the horizon. The battle was about to begin. He crouched behind the walls and waited as the shuttle landed about a hundred yards from the ice dome. Ladon prepared for the attack. Surprisingly, the first assault was mental.

  Ladon felt foreign nanos invade his mind as a half dozen soldiers poured out of the shuttle. The dragon was strong; but Ladon had defeated Fafnir in mental combat. He violently shoved the enemy out of his mind. He shut down and disposed of the enemies nanos, but not before sending a reverb of violence through the tiny machines. Ladon knew that his attack had hit its mark when one of the soldiers grabbed his head and stumbled.

  One of the soldiers transformed. He was an orange dragon with black tips to his scales. The enemy braced himself on the other side of the ice dome and opened his great jaws to spray flame across the frozen fortress.

  Ladon shook his head
. The imperial army was sorely lacking in proper training. Instead of concentrating his flame to create an opening for his fellow soldiers, the dragon was wasting time trying to melt the entire fortress.

  Disgusted, Ladon burst through the ice and flame and tackled the dragon to the ground. The enemy turned his flame on Ladon. Ladon didn’t even register the attack as his nanos adjusted the temperature to prevent injury. Fafnir had sent these me to battle without any information on their enemy.

  Ladon easily pinned the dragon to the ground. His jaws snapped the dragon’s neck and he returned to his humanoid form as the energy in his nanos died out. Two of the remain five soldiers looked on in horror and fear as the other three scrambled through the opening Ladon had created when he attacked the dragon.

  Ladon raised his head to the sky and bellowed his victory. The two remaining soldiers quickly transformed and attacked him together. Their attack was uncoordinated and ineffectual. It was like fighting new recruits. Neither dragon lasted long against an experienced warrior.

  Ladon heard Ryuu through the communicators that a second shuttle had launched and the virus upload was successful. The ship was dead in orbit and the second shuttle had crash landed just a few miles away from the research facility.

  On the horizon Ladon saw four more dragons winging swiftly towards him. He took to the sky and engaged them in aerial combat. Again, he was met with poorly trained soldiers. What had happened to the fierce armies of the Drakonian Empire?

  He rose high into the sky and then tucked his wings for a rapid dive at his enemies. His talons shredded one dragon’s wings and the bulk of his body slammed into the back of a second. The impact broke the dragon’s back and he too fell to the earth.

  The two remaining dragons circled Ladon, careful to stay out of reach of his deadly claws. They actually tried to coordinate their attack. One dragon pulled water from the atmosphere as the other lowered the temperature to form ice on Ladon’s wings. As attacks went it wasn’t a bad one, but it showed that they hadn’t studied their enemy. Ladon adjusted the temperature around him making the ice melt as soon as it touched his scales, reducing their attack to nothing more than a parlor trick.

  Ladon attacked the water dragon who had crept closer to expend less energy in his water attack. Ladon’s front claws latched on to the poor dragon holding him in place as his hind claws shredded the water dragon’s stomach. Ladon raised high into the air and then turned to drop like a stone with his burden. As the ground quickly came closer he threw the injured dragon with all his might, shattering his head and ending his suffering.

  The last dragon looked on in horror, realizing that all his comrades were dead. He turned tail and ran back towards the shuttle’s crash site. Ladon was in pursuit when the dragon suddenly dropped from the sky. Ladon landed next to the body of his enemy. He had returned to the form of a man and blood poured from his nose, eyes, and ears. Ladon doubted that it was the impact that caused those bloody injuries. Evidently Fafnir despised cowards.

  By this time Ladon was feeling almost insulted at what Fafnir had sent to battle him. He didn’t bother to hurry after the three remaining soldiers. Ryuu and Tugarin could easily dispatch them. He did follow their battle plan and blocked off their route of escape; but he didn’t remain in dragon form. It was an unnecessary expenditure of energy.

  He passed the bodies of two of the enemy soldiers. When he rounded the corner, he found the third on his knees with Ryuu in front of him. This enemy was the only one to have a soldier’s eyes. He didn’t beg for his life. He only asked that his death be swift.

  Ryuu raised his phase gun to deliver the death blow, but Ladon called out to him.

  “Wait. We need information. Keep that one alive.”

  There was something troubling Ladon about this whole thing. A good hunter knows when he needs to gather intel.

  41

  “How many remain aboard the ship?”

  Ladon paced in front of their prisoner. Despite being tied upright to a chair for almost twenty hours the man stayed resolutely silent. If this continued Ladon would have to do something he loathed; invade his mind. Ladon was an honorable man and even as a soldier he hated the use of torture to retrieve information. But sometimes it was necessary.

  With a sigh Ladon pulled a chair directly in front of the man and sat down. If he had to resort to torture, it was only fair that Ladon remember this man’s face.

  “I wish you would talk to me. I’d rather not be cruel, but I will be if I must. I will do anything to keep those I love safe.”

  That statement seemed to catch the man’s attention as he cocked his head to one side instead of staring blankly ahead.

  Ladon leaned forward, “Do you have a mate? No? When you discover them, you will find that you will do anything for them. I will not let Fafnir have her and if that means I have to go through you to keep her safe I will.”

  The man tied to the chair shook his head. “You don’t understand. Fafnir already has her. He can bleed her life force dry even from a distance once he is in her mind. He could use her to kill you and you would be none the wiser. We were only sent to retrieve her because she is strong. Fafnir wants to drain her slowly because he hasn’t encountered nanos that powerful in centuries.”

  Ladon was taken aback by the hate in the man’s voice, but he sensed it wasn’t directed at him but rather Fafnir. “What is your name?”

  “Cadmus.”

  “What if I told you, Cadmus, that we severed the connection Fafnir had?”

  Cadmus’s eyes took on a fever sheen. “That is not possible. Fafnir kills off anyone who even considers trying to find a way to break away from him.”

  Ladon just raised a brow and stood up. He walked to the door and laid his palm on the lock. The door disengaged with a hiss and slid open. Without another word, he closed the makeshift prison door behind him and went in search of Tugarin.

  He found the blue dragon in Alexis’s room. Ladon was happy to see Alexis was sitting up. Her color looked much better and she was laughing at something Tugarin had said to her.

  “Ladon!” Alexis reached out for him.

  Ladon took her hand and bent to place a kiss on her cheek. “How are you feeling?”

  “Much better. It is amazing what sleep can do for a person.” She searched his face and frowned. “Something is bothering you.”

  Ladon pulled up a chair to sit beside Alexis’s bed. Tugarin stood to give the pair some privacy but Ladon stopped him. “I want you to hear this too. In fact, get Ryuu.”

  Tugarin nodded and left to retrieve the black dragon, leaving Ladon and Alexis alone.

  Ladon stared at their intertwined hands. “I’m sorry,” He said softly.

  “For what?” Alexis asked genuinely confused.

  “For putting you through this. If I hadn’t selfishly mated you, you wouldn’t have had to go through nearly dying twice.”

  Alexis reached out and cupped his cheek, gently insisting he raise his head to look in her eyes. “I won’t lie. In the beginning, I was afraid. But I wasn’t afraid of Fafnir or the consequences of acquiring nano machines. I was afraid that it was just sex and passion between us.” She laid a finger across his lips when he would speak. “God knows we burned hot in that department. But every man I would come to care about, didn’t care about me in the same way even if they said they did.” Alexis sighed, “I fell in love with you but a part of me thought that it wouldn’t be possible for you to love me the same way.” Alexis closed her eyes and gathered her thoughts. “I guess what I am trying to say is that I don’t regret anything that has happened since we mated.”

  “How can you not regret it? Nightmare, constant mental attacks…Damn it! You nearly died when we severed the connection.”

  Alexis used both hands to grab his face and force him to look at her. “But you saved me. Don’t you see, Ladon? No matter how much you loved me, I would always question it and I would have eventually pushed you away because I didn’t trust you to actually love me. If y
ou hadn’t forced your nanos into me when I was dying, I would still be questioning it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I felt everything that time…. every thought, every emotion. I had undeniable proof of your love for me. It makes me a horrible and shallow person, but honestly it was what I needed to erase any doubts about us. We are going to fight and disagree. That is life. But now I won’t be poisoning our relationship thinking of it as proof that I was right and you really didn’t love me.”

  Ladon laid his forehead against hers. “For such a smart woman, you really can be an idiot.”

  “I know. For an ass, you can be really sweet.”

  “I know,” Ladon said with a grin. He shifted his head just enough to capture Alexis’s lips. The kiss quickly went from sweet to hungry.

  “Dad, Ladon’s kissing Alexis again,” Ryuu called over to Tugarin in a tattling voice as the pair walked into the room. Ladon flipped the black dragon off and continued to kiss his mate.

  Tugarin cleared his throat, “There was something you wanted to discuss with all of us?”

  Ladon reluctantly ended his kiss with Alexis. He settled himself on the bed next to her wrapping her in the protection of his arms.

  “Can the virus you used to sever Fafnir’s connection Alexis be used on a born Drakonian?” Ladon asked.

  “Most likely. Why?” Tugarin replied.

  “I think we should use it on our prisoner.”

  “But you told me that if you couldn’t get anything out of him voluntarily today that you would pull it forcibly from his mind.” Ryuu interjected.

  Alexis gasped, “I remember the pain of you invading my mind when we first met and that just lasted a few moments. That would basically amount to torture if you did it for a prolonged period.”

  Ladon acknowledged what Alexis stated with a nod. “Which is why I’d rather not resort to that if I didn’t have to.”